Telephone Tales/Favole al telefono

Gianni Rodari was first published in the UK with Telephone Tales: Bedtime Stories by Gianni Rodari in 1965 by George G. Harrap & Co., translated by Patrick Creagh.

The reasons behind the choice of Gianni Rodari as an author that could be distributed on the English-speaking market for children may be related to his success in Italy as a prizewinner in this category¹³², one of the elements that characterised foreign writers translated in English: the selection of foreign authors to be translated in English was based on whether they were successful in their own country and abroad, prizes established this kind of success in the eyes of publishers¹³³. Moreover, the active participation of the Italian publishing house Einaudi in international book fairs (Cicala &

La Mendola, 2009) may have contributed to the purchase of translation rights by G.

Harrap & Co.

George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd was founded in 1905 and played a particularly active role in the promotion of languages through dictionaries, the first being Harrap’s Standard French Dictionary published in 1934 (Room, 2004). Harrap’s interest towards other cultures is reflected in its general production, with authors translated from French and Italian for the adult public, but also in the breadth of its book distribution that reached other English-speaking countries such as Australia and Canada. Harrap indeed contributed to building the “originary context of the source text” (Venuti, 2013: 163) that helped the receiving public gain an insight especially into the Italian literature of the time, with such authors as Luigi Pirandello, Carlo Levi, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese,

132 In Italy, Rodari won the Prato Prize in 1960 with his first book edited by Einaudi, Filastrocche in cielo e in terra (1960).

133 For a detailed discussion see section 1.1.1 of the present research.

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often distributed in bilingual English/Italian editions. This was the preparatory background where the first book by Rodari in English translation came into being, when Harrap created a special series for young boys and girls that also included foreign writers.

Telephone Tales was translated by Patrick Creagh (1930-2012), a native speaker of English and professional translator who dedicated part of his career to the diffusion of Italian writers in English translation in the 20^th century. Rodari was among these, and Creagh worked on three books out of five of Rodari’s books published in this period, although Creagh soon turned to Italian writers for adults, also winning prizes for these translations¹³⁴. His knowledge of the Italian language and culture came from the long periods he spent in Italy in 1954-1960 and in the late 1960s, in Rome and Tuscany respectively¹³⁵. His particular taste for the sound and fluency of the English language is reflected in his numerous books of poetry¹³⁶, as well as translations from French authors such as Tristan Corbière in the 1960s. The knowledge of the Italian context and language, combined with the writing career as poet and translator, may have contributed to his being chosen as the ideal candidate to translate Gianni Rodari for the British public¹³⁷.

The peritextual material for Telephone Tales includes the publishing information with a clear reference to the original book (Favole al telefono published by Einaudi in

134 Creagh won the John Florio Prize in 1972 and 1990, see section 1.2.

135 Creagh moved with his family in the area of Chianti in the 1960s and remained there until the end of his life. He was immersed in the culture and language he used to translate from, an aspect to be taken into consideration in view of his translating habits. Mona Baker (2000) suggested that the environment where translators operate is crucial to interpret their “subconscious use of certain linguistic patterns and modes of interpretation” (2000: 259) in translation, especially in view of an analysis of the style of translators.

136 The Gale Contemporary Authors Online Encyclopaedia lists 9 books by Creagh, 4 of which are collections of poems.

137 Interestingly, in the obituary published in The Telegraph (2012) there is no mention of Creagh’s work on Rodari. Other writers are indicated, such as Bufalino, Calvino and Tabucchi. On the contrary, Rodari is mentioned in Creagh’s obituary next to Ungaretti, Magris, Brancati and Calvino, as published in the Italian press by Adnkronos (http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/News/Spettacolo/Scrittori-addio-a-Patrick-Creagh-traduttore-in-inglese-di-Bufalino-e-Tabucchi_313857344036.html last access 26/08/2015).

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1962), and of the translator Patrick Creagh. The illustrator Dick de Wilde¹³⁸ is mentioned under the jacket blurb on the front flap of the book. Here the reader can find a short summary of the content mixed with information about Rodari, and the mediation of the publisher in introducing the author is emphasised in bold:

These are the stories that Mr Bianchi tells his little daughter at bedtime. But Mr Bianchi is a commercial traveller, only home on Sundays. So he rings her up and tells her the tales by telephone.

They are the most surprising stories.

Gianni Rodari’s work is much praised in Italy where a collection of his tales and verses in 1960 won the Prato Prize; and the present book was runner-up for the first City of Caorle European Children’s Book Prize. It shows a highly original talent, and a delightfully deft touch. His stories will be just as popular in the English-speaking world as they are in Italy and many other countries.

Gianni Rodari knows that children are many things: frivolous and serious, boisterous and secret, bossy and affectionate. Here is something for every mood. If you have enjoyed these tales, it’s too far to telephone Italy and tell him so, but you can write (c/o Harrap). Mr Rodari loves to have letters from his young readers.

The mention of the two Italian prizes (the Prato and Caorle) communicates to the public the high quality of the author, emphasised by a comment of the publisher on Rodari’s

“highly original talent” and “delightfully deft touch”. The publisher mentions that Rodari “will be just as popular in the English-speaking world as […] in Italy and many other countries”, showing the need to reassure the readers that the book they have in their hands matches the quality of local authors. The presence of the publisher as

138 De Wilde specialised in books for young readers, and he was the favourite illustrator of Harrap publishing house. Between 1957 and 1966 he illustrated 10 books for the same publishing house. (Source:

internet query on the British Library Online Catalogue, search keywords ‘Dick de Wilde’, http://explore.bl.uk last access 3/11/2015)

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mediator is even more evident in the last sentence, where Harrap acts as a go-between for any comments that readers may have about Rodari’s work.

The back flap and the back jacket cover are the showcase to promote other books from the series Harrap Books for Younger Boys and Girls, with short descriptions of the plots. This showcase is another peritextual hint to the public and publishing context where Rodari first appeared in the UK¹³⁹. Among these authors only one (Claude Cénac) is foreign, but in the short description it is not clear that this book is a translation. The reasons may be related to the norms that regulate the distribution of foreign authors in the British book market for children, which present them without any explicit indication of the fact that these books are translations, nor mention of the name of the translators. The book does not have a table of contents; illustrations are in black and white, interspersed within the stories. In the introductory paragraph is mentioned that the book includes 44 stories overall.

The epitextual material includes mainly reviews of Rodari’s Telephone Tales, but also advertisements that account for the painstaking advertising campaign carried out by Harrap in a number of magazines and newspapers. The first two advertisements that included Rodari’s Telephone Tales were published within a month’s distance from one another first in November 1965 in The Listener, and the other in December in the Times Literary Supplement in the section “Happy Books”. Neither of them mentioned the translator, only the latter included the illustrator Dick de Wilde, together with comments from notable critics (Naomi Lewis) and magazines (Good Housekeeping).

The emphasis is on “Short, amusing bedtime stories” ideal for younger children, thus indicating the potential readership for this work. Also The Junior Bookshelf and Children’s Book News advertised Rodari’s book in October/December 1965. Only the first review criticised the translation as one of the possible reasons for the negative impression that Telephone Tales had on the reviewer:

139 Genette (1997) categorises this as an element of the peritextual material produced specifically by the publisher. Other elements include the format of the book, the cover and “appendages” such as book jacket and prize ribbon, and the typesetting or number of issues.

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I do not know what to make of Gianni Rodari’s short stories. The publisher tells us that he has won awards and is highly thought of in Italy and indeed some of the stories show a highly imaginative talent. Perhaps Italian children are different from British ones or perhaps the stories have lost in the translation, but I can not see many of this collection appealing to young children. [...] (The Junior Bookshelf, 1965: 283)

The facts that Rodari won awards and is much appreciated in Italy are not enough to convince the reviewer of the validity of his work as suitable to children. The reviewer suggests that the negative impact of these stories may stem from cultural reasons (difference between British and Italian children) or translational reasons (the translator did not do his job well).

Naomi Lewis included a short review of Rodari’s Telephone Tales in Best Children’s Books of 1965, from which the quotation in the TLS advert was drawn. The added bold type in the extract shows the attitude of the critic to the work:

A collection of dazzling little stories supposedly told by father to child over the telephone. Nothing comes amiss to the author’s fancy: museums, partisans, roads made of chocolate, bygone tears; a man in the market sells things like comets, or Mont Blanc, or the Indian Ocean; real mice encounter a comic-strip mouse, and can’t understand his language. He has a dreadful time until he meets a friend at last – a comic-strip cat as out of place as himself.

Quick impact; much to think over. (Lewis, 1965: 33)

The three elements of content-author-impact characterise this review in terms of brevity (“little”), creativity (“fancy”), and food for thought for the reader (“much to think over”). There is no indication of Rodari’s country of provenance, only one cultural reference to Italy and Europe may be picked up by the informed reader (“partisans”), and the fact that this book is translated is not mentioned anywhere.

On the contrary, the review in Good Housekeeping in 1965 presents an explicit reference to Italy, emphasised in bold:

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An unusual and original book – despite a rather garish cover – is Telephone Tales, translated from the Italian of Gianni Rodari […]. A father who has to go off on business telephones a light-hearted tale each night to his little daughter – and he has to be quick and to the point before his pennies run out.

(Good Housekeeping, 1965: 5)

The reader in this case is informed that the book is a translation, even though the translator remains invisible. Again there is a reference to the brevity of each story, thus suggesting the short reading time required on the reader’s part; there is no reference to the content of stories. The fact that the book is a translation and the mention of the reading time may account for the public that was supposed to read this review. Parents are informed of the foreign origin of the text, but also that it is an “unusual and original book” suggested for reading together with children. The reviews presented in this section have shown how reviewers highlighted different aspects of Rodari’s first text on the British market according to the supposed interests of the public, primarily composed of adults as parents and scholars in the field of children’s literature.